Teen Pregnancy is no Tea Party.
by Kristy Campbell
Teen pregnancy is a hot Hollywood storyline at the moment. Shows like MTV's 16 and Pregnant, ABC's The Secret Life of An American Teenager, and Fox's Glee all showcase the topic. Bristol Palin, the most recent celebrity teen mom, is also doing a great job of making teen parenting seem glamorous. She is featured in the June issue of Harper's Bazaar and was named Teen Abstinence Ambassador for the Candie's Foundation. She asks $15-30,000 per speaking engagement to make speeches about abstinence and pro-life, and while she speaks about how hard it is to be a teen mom, she certainly makes it look like a lucrative goal.
I have an issue with giving teenage motherhood an air of intrigue. My issue isn't based on moral or religious bias, it's based on the fact that I'm the child of teenage parents and I know the truth about having a teenage mom…it's far from glamorous. We weren't on MTV. There weren't any wealthy family members to help us out nor did my mom command thousands of dollars as a speaker. The most she ever received was an African violet for being the "youngest" mom at a church supper as I hid under the table horrified. As a child, I never knew how to interpret the "your mom seems too young to be a mom" comment.
My mom and dad were 17 when my mom got pregnant with me. She was kicked out of her house, moved in with my dad's family, and saw her college dreams go down the drain. My dad was released from his Varsity baseball team and lost a scholarship. My parents received their high school diplomas, were married the following week, and were then launched into the world on their own. For my mother, going from being someone's daughter to wife to mother within a 3-month period was a tough transition, but it was only later that her stress fractures gave way.
My parents worked to get my dad through college. A few years later, my mom went to nursing school while working as a waitress in order to make ends meet. I remember many nights saying goodnight to my mom as she studied and then waking her up at the same table. I'd make her coffee, make lunches for her, my brother and me, and hug her goodbye as I we all left for school. She graduated at the top of her class, and I was so proud of my young mom. She started working at a hospital on the afternoon and evening shifts, often pulling double shifts in order to earn extra money.
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Saving the World One Teen at a Time is a weekly column about navigating the tween-teen years in an increasingly thorny, competitive and tech-dominated world, written by two women with super-hero insights. Kristy Campbell is a mom of 5 (1 teen, tween twins, 1 pre-tween, 1 toddler) and works as an actress and social media consultant. She is currently writing her guide on how to survive the modern mom's midlife crisis. Abby Margolis Newman is a mom of two teenage sons, and one prematurely teenage 10-year-old son. She has written feature stories for the New York Times, and articles for Parenting, Working Mother, and Scholastic, among many other publications.
